TOOGOOD DENIM

DESIGNED AND CONSTRUCTED entirely in Britain,
Toogood Denim takes a truly international signifier
of the utilitarian spirit and weaves it into sustainable
workwear-inspired garments that celebrate the honesty
of labour. These enduring pieces are unshackled by
seasonal concerns or the vacillations of the fashion
industry — thus staying true to the principles that
underlie every Toogood design.

TOOGOOD DENIM uses only the highest-class 16¹⁄² oz
cotton/linen selvedge denim, produced using a ³⁄¹
right-hand twill construction. Britain’s only selvedge
denim fabric, it is manufactured in a century-old mill
in east Lancashire, before being bound together in
a London atelier with run-and-fell-stitched seams
on a quarter-inch gauge. The use of an open-end weft
yarn lends the cloth a rugged nap that will evolve with
the passage of time, making every Toogood Denim piece
a continual “work in progress” whenever you wear it.

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COMMUNIQUE 008

NOTWITHSTANDING the immeasurable virtues of welders, builders, mechanics and associated trades, we recognise the value and dignity of labour in all its forms. Thus we laud and celebrate not only those who toil with blood, sweat and tears – but also those who tackle such stubborn stains thereafter. Hail to that vast and overlooked army, whose daily mission is to combat the ravages of entropy! Salute their sisyphean struggle to sweep, polish and scrub away the encroaching detritus of our industrialised lives!

Our fingers poised over the triggers of detergents and surfactants, we liberate the notion of “utility wear” from its military-industrial complexities. This is our battledress: the shieldlike tabard, the rugged livery of a dishcloth stripe; the crumpled linen of a housekeeper’s handcloth. From domestic scraps of textile and cord, we weave layered garments of moplike texture; in durable drill and thick jersey, we fight the dusty and soiled notions that separate the public from the domestic spheres. Even our hues are natural and unsullied, shot through with a cleansing blast of antiseptic blue and fresh mint. Our work is never done.

We will glorify chores, the world’s only hygiene. So do your domestic duty – clean up your act!

round and round goes the wash cycle the domestic and the menial the neverending toil the constant struggle to overcome the accretion of labour

Those eternal chores: surfaces to clean, dirt to hoover, laundry to launder, dust to dust

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COMMUNIQUÉ 007
COLLECTION 007

And as the sun sets over the broad cosmopolis, we withdraw to the wild and windy moor, not to retreat but to regroup. Braced against the prevailing wind, melancholic in mood, we subsume ourselves within the rugged and the romantic. Enwrapped, enrapt, we wander these lonely lands, tapping into the spirit of resilience in the crunch of the bracken and the spiny gorse.

Thou, Nature, art our goddess! To thy laws our services are bound! Here on the blasted heath we offer no fealty to the new rules of society, of culture, of couture – our resistance is not passive, but subversive. With disruptive patterns and mossy felted wool, we camouflage ourselves; with waxed tarpaulin, we protect ourselves; with flowing silks, we embody the freedom of the rolling mist. In these untamed uplands there is eternal certainty – now is the time to refresh our minds and recalibrate our wardrobes with the raw power of nature.

TOOGOOD

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COLLECTION 006

This land – our land, your land – is our inspiration; in this soil the seeds of our collections grow. The time is ripe to reaffirm a connection with the very earth we walk, the ground we farm and breed on: the forgotten charms of the waving wheatfields, of swine foraging in the mire, of rich and bounteous folkways. Our aims are pastoral, not rustic – with homegrown labour and natural fabrics, we shall harvest this agrarian idyll for our modern way of living.

On streets of asphalt between the glassy high-rises, we plough our own furrow. Farmers’ checks, redrawn in the scarlet ink of a deskbound accountant, repurpose the country code for the sterile city. Patchwork quilting, sampled and remixed, provides bucolic comfort, while the unbridled creativity of a child’s-eye view of muddy pigs lends a vital naïve element. Strong, practical, tethered to the land with apron strings and dungaree straps – this new arcadia is rooted in the honest simplicity of agricultural labour.

We return to the land! We stand alone in our field!

TOOGOOD

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Plant the seeds of change
Agrarian revolution!
Swine before earls
Take back the land
Ours is a growth industry
Reap what we have sewn
And as the seasons turn
Let new life emerge!

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005 communique + images

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COLLECTION 005

We salute the noble mudlarks! Along the banks of
the dirty old river, these resourceful scavengers
sift the silt for the buried remnants of a
hundredscore years. A clay pipe, an ivory button,
a Roman coin, a charred remnant of the city’s
first campfire – what fresh delights will the
ebbing tide reveal?

The repetitious cycles of the fashion mainstream
follow only the current, overlooking in their
arrogance all that is deemed washed up. This we
disdain! Arrayed in our exploratory uniform, we
champion the serendipity of the chance find.
Through fine-grade steel mesh we filter and sieve
the accumulated influences of these islands’
centuries. From abandoned yarns and threads we
knit knotty new designs. On interwoven hooks and
grommets we hang our trouvés, the treasures we
have found lying half-buried in the sediment of
our lives.

Inspiration through recirculation!

TOOGOOD

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004 Title page

004 Communique & images

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COLLECTION 004

With guile and ingenuity, the resourceful women
of wartime Britain would transform fallen
parachutes into silk lingerie. Thus with diligent
stitching would they make do and amend, turning
the rarefied fabric of war to glamorous and
amorous purpose. The lightweight silk that bore
airmen on stealthy missions behind enemy lines
became pacified, moving from secret assignation
to secret assignations, sedition to seduction.

These are the blueprints which we now declassify!
The marriage of intimacy and military structure –
repurposed for a new century. Ours is an age
without secrecy. What was hidden is worn openly,
the covert becomes the overt. We take the tools
of clandestine subterfuge, the ruched
reinforcements and the ripcord ties, and mesh
them with the intimate sensuality of the
underlayers. The gentle sway of diaphanous
organzas, silks and organdies, the most precious
accoutrements of the private sphere, on proud
display for all to see! The bellicose
functionalism of airforce blues and olive drab,
softened and appeased with undulant layering.

Gone are the days of undercover operations and
hidden prowess, but the craft and the forms
behind them endure.Now the secrets havesurfaced; the private is on parade!

TOOGOOD

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003 Title Page

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COLLECTION 003

Your individuality is a precious and fragile
thing – you must protect it at any cost. Assailed
by conformity, beset by convention, you must look
to your own unique traits and keep them safe.

We are archivists of the body, curators of the
soul. With folds of felt and waxed cotton we
envelop your frame, and wrap it all up with
string. With layers of clinging film we keep your
ideas fresh, all sealed away with prophylactic
care. Packaged and preserved, you will endure.

We are urban survivalists, outward bound in the
inner city. With chunky knits and padded linens,
we insulate you on your expeditions, preserving
your inner warmth in an environment as cold and
uncaring as the eyes of strangers. Against harsh
wind and smog, we will swaddle and coddle you.

Let the elements rain down upon you! Let the
modern world throw at you what it will! You are
protected!

Protect and survive!

TOOGOOD

concrete poem 003

TWELVE DAYS
W
A
L
K
I
N
G AND SLEEPING ON BARREN GROUND
FINDING YOUR OWN WAY IN THE CANYONS OF CONCRETE
EXPLORING THE DESERTED CITIES OF THE MIND.
WHATEVER IS FELT MUST ENDURE
F R A G M E N T S SHORED UP AGAINST
THE RAVAGES OF TIME
OF THESE TIMES
PROTEST AND THRIVE
PROTECT AND SURVIVE
T
O
O
G
O
O
D

Images 003 part 2

The Forester Jumper and Forester Hat [drab hand-spun alpaca]

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Toogood_OneDay_Video

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COMMUNIQUÉ 002
COLLECTION 002

We are the faceless workers! Our collars are blue,
through and through! So too are the sleeves upon which
we wear our hearts, and the backs across which we blazon
our deepest creeds and ideals. Blue is our livery – the
royal teint that flows through aristocratic veins,
diverted and reclaimed by the labouring masses. Whatever
our field or trade – industry, construction, repair,
service, retail – it is constantly present, the
ballpoint hue whose inky pigment writes of countless
decades of toil and struggle.

The time has come to stand firm and forge a new identity
from these durable blueprints. Eighteen unisex garments
– in shapes that are new but always familiar –
manufactured in Britain by honest hands. Tough cottons
and hardwearing linens united in fresh purpose, with
digitally printed slogans writ large for all the world
to see. The dignity of the workers’ blues, with none of
the depression.
In the conformity of labour, we find a new expression of
ourselves. We are the faceless workers! And we are all
individuals!

TOOGOOD

The Plumber Overall 002

The Sculptor cut-offs 002

Extra _002_Dancing Puppets 2

The Sculptor Trouser 002

Poem 002

LIBERATION
FASHIONED BY INDUSTRY
NOT THE FASHION INDUSTRY
WORKERS OF THE WORLD
UNITE
ROADSWEEPER
BEEKEPER
OILRIGGER
MILKMAN
RICH MAN
POOR MAN
BEGGAR MAN
THIEF
A
R
TISANS CONTROL THE MEANS OF
PRODUCTION
PREDICTION
PREDILECTION
YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE
BUT YOUR CHAINSTORES
T
O
O
G
O
O
D

The Fishmonger Coat 002

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COMMUNIQUÉ 001

COLLECTION 001

Now is the time to rise above the whims of corporate fashion
and actualise the individual. Industrial relations Faye & Erica
Toogood have built a new collection — inspired by the workers,
to inspire the workers. Eight new coats, practical and sculptural,
crafted from hardwearing materials and engineered to
withstand the changing seasons. Each garment derives from
the workwear of a specific trade — an authentic vocation, not
the shallow desk jobs of the digital age — marked with the
signs of toil in screen-printed rubber and foil. Each piece knows
no boundaries of age or gender, available in six sizes to
enhance or disguise the individual frame. The materials are
redolent of the values of staunch tradespeople: the waxed
cotton of the oilrigger; the vulcanised rubber of the industrial
labourer; the hardwearing canvas of the mariner and the artist.
Unique documentation sewn inside celebrates its provenance,
encouraging the wearer to forge a new link in its chain of
production: the names of the buyer, the seller, the manufacturer,
right back to the designer and the pattern-cutter, are all
displayed with justifiable pride.

TOOGOOD

The Beekeeper Jacket 001

The Roadsweeper Coat 001

001 THE ROADSWEEPER COAT [rubberised black canvas]

001 THE ROADSWEEPER [rubberised black canvas]

Manifesto

TOOGOOD

This is the story of two good Toogoods.

Sisters Faye and Erica Toogood were raised amid the furrowed fields of the English
countryside. Their grandmother was a tailor who, during the War, made underwear out of parachutes.

Faye would go foraging in the woods in her wellingtons, collecting sticks and stones and broken bones then endlessly rearranging them on the mantelpiece in her room.

This self-confessed tinker went on to become one of the most recognisable figures in the design industry, creating furniture,
interiors and sculpture.

Imbued with the spirit of her grandmother, and having inherited her long maker’s hands, Erica was obsessed with shapes and drapes from an early age. At the age of eight she jumped on a Singer sewing machine and made
herself a top out of an old windsock.

She has worked with a number of London
fashion designers as a pattern-cutter,
created costumes for theatrical productions, and carried out countless bespoke commissions for private clients.

Toogood is instilled with the unmistakable spirit of both sisters: Faye’s preoccupation with materiality and Erica’s audacious
shape-making.

One a tinker, the other a tailor.

They approach fashion design obliquely,
working with architects, product designers and painters to create hardwearing pieces that are both practical and sculptural.

Each garment takes inspiration from
traditional workwear, transforming the idea of a uniform into a mark of individuality.

Sewn inside is an identification document which traces its manufacture by crediting the designers, makers and distributers in turn, with a space for the new owner’s name to be added in, encouraging a sense of connection
to the chain of creation.